A polygonal mesh may be a collection of vertices, edges, and faces that define the shape and/or boundary of an object. A vertex may be a position (e.g., a point or location). An edge may be a connection between two vertices (e.g., may be a line connecting two vertices). A face may a closed set of edges. For example, a triangular face may be formed with a closed set of three edges, a quadrilateral face may be formed with a closed set of four edges, etc. The faces may consist of various polygonal shapes such as triangles, quadrilaterals, convex polygons, concave polygons, regular polygons (e.g., polygons which may have equal length sides and may have equal angles) and/or irregular polygons (e.g., polygons which may not have equal length sides and may not have equal angles).
Polygonal meshes are used in or applied in various areas. For example, computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) processes may use polygonal meshes to define components or parts that are to be manufactured. In another example, polygonal meshes may be used in computer animation to create more lifelike movies or images. In a further example, game applications (e.g., video games, computer games) often use polygonal meshes to represent objects in a virtual environment.